Staff MemberPremium Member

Do you love the new tech in smartphones, yet pine for the old Droid days with an actual physical QWERTY keyboard? If you have the new Samsung Galaxy S4, it may seem like a happy distant memory, but the folks at Hypercel have a unique accessory which may be just the ticket. It's a Sliding Bluetooth Keyboard Case designed for the Samsung Galaxy S4. It's powered by its own battery and doubles as a protective case for your SGS4. It's a bit pricey at $80 bucks, but that might be worth it for some of us. Here's a description from the manufacturer and a link to check out out,

This Bluetooth Slide-out Keyboard for Samsung Galaxy S4 provides quick access to all controls, features, camera, and ports. Conveniently designed slide-out keyboard allows you to switch from the touch screen to keyboard. It easily pairs over Bluetooth connectivity and features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard with LED back light that allows you to type when it's dark. It's powered by an advanced Lithium rechargeable battery and built-in on/off switch lets you conserve battery life. Adjustable angled body gives you flexibility to watch movies or type while you are laying down. Simply snap in your Samsung S4, connect and you've got a fully functional keyboard ready whenever you need it!

Long, long past due for something like this to become available. Maybe it only made business sense for a device with the distribution of Galaxy, but one would expect it's fairly easy to adapt this to different phones since it mostly requires just a different case. They're obviously going to want you to buy a NEW keyboard when you change phones, but if they could design it to be interchangeable with a variety of cases they have a big homerun.

I would buy this in a second. Only question is how much phone battery would you sacrifice always having BT on and connected? And if it's going to "sleep" how responsive and quick would it be to sliding open and starting to type?

Swype and the likes are pretty good, but for business users the errors eliminate any speed advantage and the nuisance of corrections makes a physical qwerty superior.

Would these keyboards only work with the Galaxy S4 or with any Android?

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The keyboard in the OP, at least, pretty clearly has some S4 specific programming. I assume most of the basic functions would work with any BT 3.0 capable phone, but I'd expect there could be some software/compatability issues.

Well it's also a case, so I'm sure it would only fit the GS4..But I guess you could use it as a standalone keyboard (would be strange, IMHO)

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At least One of the two mentioned in this thread is detachable from the case. I don't really see the point because besides having to prop up the screen to then use the detachable keyboard, I don't know why you'd want to use it that way.

Maybe the case makers will start making compatible cases for these that fit other phones.

I've had ideas about something like this... but no way to get a prototype built (i.e. life get's in the way.) Regardless it's a great idea and I hope it goes somewhere

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Same here. Also needed to track someone down to do the coding. Anyway, the one downside is that now you have a device that's once again huge in every dimension. Would be much better if someone *cough* Moto *cough* would build another reliable QWERTY slider. The Droid 4 and Photon are not up to snuff.